A Beautiful Mind
by Alis Volat Propris
Summary: Is it so hard to believe that someone could want you for your mind, Ino?" He replied.


AN: Because I love this pairing and they deserve a one shot at the very least.

"I have earned it" Ino snarled, her promotion should have been obvious. She had outdone all of the other interrogation specialists, had done triple the work in half the time. She would be his assistant and after that she would pass him up and get herself into Anbu and out of this god forsaken department.

"Chee. You have only just begun to learn what it takes to get to the top, Yamanaka." Ibiki mocked her, a year into the program.

"I will, Ibiki. I swear I will. I'm going to defeat you, you bitter, cynical, twisted, old man. And when I do, you _will _promote me and I will take your job and get the hell out of here. " Ino snarled, defiant.

When Yamanaka Ino set her mind to something, she did not give up. She had spent the next year working her ass off, slaving for him in the interrogations unit, striving for his approval. She outclassed her collegues. It was only between her and Ibiki now. It was personal. It was beyond personal. Somewhere along the lines the relationship between them had blurred, over long sleepless nights, hard tortures, philosophical debates at two in the morning after a forty eight hour shift. It was what had gotten her into this mess in the first place that loss of formality. The loss of title with him. Somewhere along the lines he'd began treating her with respect, like an equal.

Ibiki had underestimated her tenacity, or perhaps her stubborn spirit. Yamanaka Ino had risen to the top, had far exceeded his expectations and had wormed her way deep beneath his skin in more ways than one. It was why he was promoting her. It was why he was resigning.

…..................................................

"Of course" Ibiki told her simply, tone almost mocking. "It's very logical, in point of fact, I'm surprised the notion came from _you_." He continued as he snapped on the thick gloves preparing for their next interrogation.

Ino's eyes narrowed as she glared upon her shishou, rage barely concealed in her ki. She had accused him, as she had every right to. Who the hell told someone they were resigning and then kissed their assistant?

She too prepared the apron she wore, because as angry as she was at this man, her mentor and master, and the one who had taught her everything she knew when it came to interrogation, they still had a job to do. And this man, above any other man Ino Yamanaka had met, was nothing but thorough with his job description. Even in light of that soul searing, earth shattering, mind numbing kiss they had just shared only moments before. And it infuriated her beyond all reconcilable differences.

"You are angry" He observed coolly.

"You're damn straight I'm angry, who the hell _are_ you and what the hell was that?" Ino snarled in contempt.

"Everyone has always wanted you for your body. For your looks and features. You were Yamanaka Ino, the tease, the flirt when you came here. Of course that's all you could see, could think of with those that used you in the past " He replied.

Ino said nothing to this, waiting not because she was afraid of this man. No she was not afraid of Morino Ibiki. They were equals now by his own admission. She was silent because she knew by the way he looked at her, by the way he spoke that he did not think those things about her, even though he spoke them so callousedly. Blue eyes piercing in their intensity, she licked her lips, watching him. She could still taste him there on the surface, the taste of his cigarettes and his own unique flavor and she trembled against that very fact, against the rage and hurt she felt building beneath the surface.

This wasn't supposed to happen. Ino was nothing if not a planner, a schemer even. She followed her dreams, pursued her own desires and expectations and let nothing stand in the way of her goals. She knew what she wanted, and was always in control of her feelings, of who she dated and spent her time with. How the hell had this happened? His eyes were ignited charcoals, blazing with the shade of desire screened about their endless black his cheeks colored with the color from her lips and his lips converging. Her own cheeks were stained with an incriminating pink, her breathe still short. The look broke her confidence, and her anger.

Ino hesitating again as she was unable to meet those impenetrable black eyes, eyes that could sear themselves straight into her soul without hesitation.

In the beginning she had hated the man. Had sworn she would never work under him, had fought him tooth and nail at every turn. He had done everything in his power to try and keep her from succeeding. It was Ino's tenacity, her stubborness that had led them this far, that had kept her there when she should have damn well walked away. Tsunade had forced her to take this position, needing someone with the appropriate skills to take up his job when the man finally retired. Morino Ibiki had known this, had known that it would be her to take over for him when his time was done.

He had known her from her time in the chuunin exams. Had seen her rise through the ranks of ninja, had done several extended missions with her father, and had seen the young girl excel and exceed under Asuma's tutelage. When her instructor and mentor died he had seen the sun go out of her eyes. He had watched her walk around, lifeless and fading, the very dead walking. He had seen her rise out of her own ashes, and had been there when she had passed the jounin exams. He had been there when her goal to have her own team of Geinin had crumpled to the floor. She was needed as a special jounin, and an assistant to him. And this fact had made him want to break her, had caused him to resent her as he watched her grow. When she finally came to him, he had done everything in his power to see her fail. There were no qualms about it. He was a cruel man, forced to do cruel things for the Konoha he loved.

Ino had never been an more unwilling student. She hated him for teaching her this trade, a trade she had never wanted to learn, a trade she had cried over many times before finally toughening up, finally freezing those silent tears of hers in her cobalt eyes. They darkened when she began her interrogations. She tried to seperate herself from the person she had to become when she tortured people. But she never succeeded. She still cried after every one of them though she never knew he knew that. She was angry at him, at the world for making her use her talents in such a destructive and pain seeking way. The girl had been a naïve child before his palable hands had molded her, broken and shaped her into a hardened kunoichi and an expert interrogation operative. What she hadn't planned on, what he could have never anticipated was the kiss they had found themselves entangled in only seconds before.

And yet, it, too, made sense, was the next logical step for him, for them. For who else could know? Could truly understand the kind of mental toughness, the mental callousedness and numbness required to torture another living human being for hours on end and go home and sleep at night, waking the next morning to do it all over again at a moment's notice. Could understand the politics of being an interrogation operative and the ethical numbness required to do such a job and do it well. Because torturing never ended, never stopped until the person had been shattered and broken. It was a battle of wills, a battle of pain tolerance, a battle of belief and philosophy and ethics and soteriology wrapped into one. It was a sick twisted artform that he had perfected because he had lived through it, had experienced it and now he had been forced to share it, to teach it to another. And she wouldn't let him push her away. It was this reason that he responded to her the way he had. That he had kissed her.

"Is it so hard to believe that someone could want you for your mind, Ino?" He replied to the unasked question in those periwinkle blues the color of a summer sky.

_Perhaps it had been whimsical of him, the last parting gift to his prized pupil. Those lips were soft, pliable like the mind of her and he had tasted both, experienced both as he pulled her, drawing her closer to him as she had wrapped her hands around his neck. Her small mewl of protest, or perhaps hesitation made him pull her that much closer and she responded with a passion filled gasp as those calloused hands roved her ample curves. Her fingers brushed over, and traced the scar tissue on his face, pressing herself closer as the kiss overwhelmed all logical coherent thought and process . His tongue delved, seeking entrance and purchase to which she freely gave as he tasted and sampled her sweetness. She smelled like spring, tasted like spring and flowers and everything good in this world that he was not, that was beyond his tainted fingers. He was twice the age of her, if not more. She was his student, his assistant, his equal. They came from opposite worlds, opposite sides of a coin. And it was why neither of them could let go, could turn away, because as different as they were, they were the same coin, the same side, the same. _

Those eyes widened to the size of saucers as she retreated, feeling the small interrogation room closing in on her, on them and the tension between them. If he had kissed her because of superficial shallow reasoning's perhaps she could have pulled herself together. She might have found the anger needed to respond. Here she was, an assistant newly promoted head of the interrogations department, next to the previous head of the interrogations department operation itself, in the room they had spent countless hours in, all of her training time, and irony of all irony she was the one feeling interrogated and vulnerable now.

"I am a hard man, Ino. I have lived through things, seen things, experienced things that no ninja should ever have to go through. I know the worth of the body, I know it's limitations, it's breaking points. Your body is fragile, and it would break under my administrations" He told her.

Ino's eyes narrowed at the insinuation, the bare threat that he seemed to send out. She was not afraid of this man, and she would show him no mercy if it came down to it, if he threatened her.

He grabbed her wrist and she turned, ready to strike him, angry and hurt and confused by the entirety of the situation and the feelings for a man she'd thought couldn't feel anymore. But he only pulled her into him, forcing her to look up at him.

"However, It is your mind, dear one, that I find myself captivated with." He said, fingers carresing her chin.

And Ino froze, a deer in the headlights by his soft carress from those calloused hands. She had watched those hands cause pain and it filled her with a swift ache of desire that he had touched her like he did. ignited coals, those deep black eyes were penetrating her, reading her like a book.

"Because in here" He tapped her forehead. "You cannot be broken. Even if I were to use the extent of my skills, to which I have, really. You refuse to be broken." He told her.

Ino took a sharp breathe. She'd never expected to hear these kind of things from him, never expected to be kissed by the man who had tormented her for the past two and a half years. The man who had become so much more.

"Because your mind is beautiful Yamanaka Ino, you feel keenly the pain of every person you torture. You have walked in the human mind and you are familiar with suffering more so than any other. Because as calloused as you have become, you have not isolated yourself from the extent of their suffering. That makes you desirable in the midst of this limbo, this purgatory of a place that you never wanted to be in. That I forced you into. It also means that I can no longer hold you back." Ibiki told her.

Ino felt the tears in her eyes and blinked, unable to avoid them spilling over, and trickling silently down her lashes. She angrily blinked them away.

"You are ready, and I will tell the Hokage myself and submit my formal resignation today." He told her, wiping at the drying tears with a lock of her own hair, kissing it as he turned.

Her hand shot out, grabbing his trench coat. He stopped and turned at the tug of insistence, surprised.

"Don't" She said. Yamanaka Ino, after all, never begged.

The unspoken words however were there, as clear as day, as everything between them.

_Don't walk away. Not yet._

"I'm not going to insult you by coddling or congratulating you, Ino. You were never that kind of person and you don't need my words. You've earned this promotion and as such I'm submitting my resignation before you do. I'd like to leave with my dignity" He replied to her, turning to face her.

She looked up at him. "I don't want to be coddled." She replied. "I wouldn't expect something like that from you, but then again I also didn't think you'd kiss me...not like that" She retorted.

"You have always underestimated me." Ibiki replied in turn, a smirk tugging at the corners of his features. Ino knew a circumnavigated conversation when she saw it. He would not provoke her from finding out the truth.

"Why did you kiss me?" She asked.

"Because you have a beautiful mind, and an unbreakable spirit" He replied simply. _Because I'm in over my head with you, and this is how I'm letting you go. _

Ino balked at him. Morino Ibiki, a man who was so calloused and scarred she didn't think he had a heart or any feelings left had just confessed to her.

Ibiki watched the myriad of emotions playing on her face."Then I'm the new interrogations head?" She asked, eying him.

He merely nodded. "Yes, you are the head. Granted the paperwork has to be pushed through but as far as the title is concerned, it's yours" He confirmed, knowing she needed to hear it, deserved to hear it after what he had put her through.

"Then as the head, I order you to stay." Ino replied.

Ibiki turned, surprised by this response. He had expected jubilation, rash outbursts of pride and gloating and a tirade of her typical behavior. The question in his eyes was unmistakable.

"I could use someone like you on staff and I sure as hell don't want to run this department alone, co- head." She told him.

Ibiki searched her face still in disbelief of what he had heard. Irritated by the look, she grabbed him by the collar of his trench coat, kissing him senseless as she pinned him to their work table. If he couldn't understand that she was interested she'd fucking spell it out for him the way he'd spelled it out for her.

Ino had a beautiful mind, but there was no doubt that she also had a beautiful body and he was going to put both to good use.


End file.
